Graduate student Dylan Vitt was searching for more sustainable practices for the Maldonado lab when he learned about Findensers. These air-cooled condensers do not require water or energy inputs to cool evaporated solvents. They can replace the single-pass water-cooled condensers in most applications.

Single-pass water-cooled condensers used for a year can use twenty times as much water as a household flushing a toilet five times a day. This wasted water must be processed through treatment plant­s—an energy cost. 

Chemistry professor and sustainability advocate Anne McNeil suggested Vitt make this technology known throughout the department and he followed up by surveying labs for interest in the Findensers. “The more orders for Findensers, the more water saved,” he points out. Each Findenser costs about $200.

With a grant from the LSA Incentive and Innovation fund, and additional support from the Department of Chemistry, Vitt was able to purchase 121 Findensers that are now in use in labs throughout the building: 40 in teaching labs, and 81 distributed among 13 different research labs. 

The U-M Chemistry installation is the largest in the United States and second largest in the world aside from Oxford University, according to the representative from Radleys, the UK company that manufactures this device and a range of chemistry tools.

The Findensers are proving to be effective across a range of applications, using different solvents and processes, according to Vitt.

Just how much less water will be used because of the Findensers is being tracked in monthly building water use but the devices have only been in place since May. The Findensers will be used for the first time in the fall in the teaching labs in a reaction that requires overnight use so it is expected that that alone could result in a drop in building water use.

In addition to the water savings, the Findensers are also safer to use, Vitt points out. There there are no moving parts, there is no risk of flooding the lab, and they can be used overnight without supervision.

“It really is laissez faire—install it and forget it,” Vitt says.